29:1 Woe to you, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David settled! Add year to year and let your cycle of festivals go on.
Compare this with verse 11. He gives us the scroll and we can’t read it because it is sealed up. Every year they kept the cycle of festivals not realizing that they depicted bigger events that marked the ages. Jesus crucifixion was the true passover. The spirit falling on the disciples was the true Pentecost. At the end of the age we have several festivals and kick this off with the festival of trumpets.
2 Yet I will besiege Ariel; she will mourn and lament, she will be to me like an altar hearth.
He will make our cities like the hearth of the great altar. In other words everything will be burnt up to ashes. Right now the economy is being burnt up, the dead are being burnt up, our way of life is being burnt up.
3 I will encamp against you on all sides; I will encircle you with towers and set up my siege works against you.
We are completely encircled with this virus. They are scaling the walls, they are breaking in through the gate.
4 Brought low, you will speak from the ground; your speech will mumble out of the dust. Your voice will come ghostlike from the earth; out of the dust your speech will whisper.5 But your many enemies will become like fine dust, the ruthless hordes like blown chaff.
The boastful, arrogant speech has been silenced. No one cares about some NBA star, or some other media darling. We have been humbled. And our enemy, this virus, is like fine dust. They are ruthless, don’t care if you are elderly, or sick, or even a young child. And they come on us like blown chaff.
Suddenly, in an instant, 6 the Lord Almighty will come with thunder and earthquake and great noise, with windstorm and tempest and flames of a devouring fire.
This is the festival of Trumpets. We are announcing that the King is coming. When He arrives there will be a great earthquake.
7 Then the hordes of all the nations that fight against Ariel, that attack her and her fortress and besiege her, will be as it is with a dream, with a vision in the night— 8 as when a hungry person dreams of eating, but awakens hungry still; as when a thirsty person dreams of drinking, but awakens faint and thirsty still. So will it be with the hordes of all the nations that fight against Mount Zion.
Everyday we hear of some cure whether it is some drug, or some theory like disinfectant or UV light. Then we wake up and look at the numbers and they continue to increase. More are infected, more are dying than yesterday. They are going to have a massive testing that will allow them to reopen the schools in September, but then they will awake and realize the situation is worse today than yesterday.
9 Be stunned and amazed, blind yourselves and be sightless; be drunk, but not from wine, stagger, but not from beer. 10 The Lord has brought over you a deep sleep: He has sealed your eyes (the prophets); he has covered your heads (the seers). 11 For you this whole vision is nothing but words sealed in a scroll. And if you give the scroll to someone who can read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I can’t; it is sealed.”12 Or if you give the scroll to someone who cannot read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I don’t know how to read.”
This is where the rubber meets the road. This is the day we have been waiting and watching for. The festival of trumpets is when trumpets sound to wake you up! Sadly many will be exposed as not being prepared. For them the vision is nothing but words. It is sealed up. When they read the prophets they can’t read it because “it is sealed”.
13 The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught. 14 Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.”
Hypocrisy. That is why they are blind and can’t read. It is all lip service. Their worship is an act, not with the heart. What kind of wisdom is that? It is a wisdom of how to appear to come near and worship, but when the real pressure is on then you see that wisdom vanishes in an instant. They are clueless.
15 Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the Lord, who do their work in darkness and think, “Who sees us? Who will know?” 16 You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, “You did not make me”? Can the pot say to the potter, “You know nothing”?
Let’s look at an example of those who went to great depths to hide their plans from the Lord. The cigarette companies were manipulating the chemistry of cigarettes to make the nicotine a more powerful drug so that the cigarettes would be more addictive. They hired scientists to work on this but hid this because if cigarettes were a drug they would be regulated differently. They even lied to congress saying they did not act like a drug when it was well known within the company that they did. Then when a whistleblower was going to reveal on 60 Minutes that they lied to congress, that the cigarettes were a drug and were manipulated to more addictive despite also being deadly, they sued 60 Minutes. They said that if they revealed the truth of their lie it would be very costly to them and so they would sue CBS for their losses?! Talk about turning things upside down.
God is the one who rules in righteousness and justice, not them. Are they going to instruct Him about the law? So they lost, they lost big time. That should be a wake up call to anyone else who is also trying to hide their plans from the Lord.
17 In a very short time, will not Lebanon be turned into a fertile field and the fertile field seem like a forest? 18 In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see. 19 Once more the humble will rejoice in the Lord; the needy will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
When I first began to seek the Lord I opened up the Bible, I started to read, and I had no idea what I was reading. It was sealed. I was like a person who couldn’t read. My prayer was “Lord, I need a crowbar to open this”. Today my soul glorifies my Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my savior.
20 The ruthless will vanish, the mockers will disappear, and all who have an eye for evil will be cut down—21 those who with a word make someone out to be guilty, who ensnare the defender in court and with false testimony deprive the innocent of justice.
Since I started with the case about the cigarette companies I’ll finish with it as well. So, to prevent 60 Minutes from airing a devastating show that would fully expose the lies of the cigarette companies they attempted to smear the whistleblower. They put together a 500 page dossier of his sins including shoplifting, and failure to pay child support. They quoted a judge, police and his ex wife. Almost succeeded, but fortunately some people checked it out at their own expense. When they talked to the witnesses quoted in the dossier they heard a very different account and the Wall Street Journal, the number one supporter of big business, called it a smear campaign of the lowest level.
22 Therefore this is what the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, says to the descendants of Jacob: “No longer will Jacob be ashamed; no longer will their faces grow pale. 23 When they see among them their children, the work of my hands, they will keep my name holy; they will acknowledge the holiness of the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
Don’t you love this? Don’t you love being alive at this time when God will arise, when His enemies will be scattered, when His foes will flee? “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” (Rev 6:10). We have been patient, we have been praying, so Let God Arise!
24 Those who are wayward in spirit will gain understanding; those who complain will accept instruction.”
I learned this as a stock broker. When people complain and question it indicates they are listening, interested and considering what you are saying. God is not afraid of this, He welcomes it.
Compare this with verse 11. He gives us the scroll and we can’t read it because it is sealed up. Every year they kept the cycle of festivals not realizing that they depicted bigger events that marked the ages. Jesus crucifixion was the true passover. The spirit falling on the disciples was the true Pentecost. At the end of the age we have several festivals and kick this off with the festival of trumpets.
2 Yet I will besiege Ariel; she will mourn and lament, she will be to me like an altar hearth.
He will make our cities like the hearth of the great altar. In other words everything will be burnt up to ashes. Right now the economy is being burnt up, the dead are being burnt up, our way of life is being burnt up.
3 I will encamp against you on all sides; I will encircle you with towers and set up my siege works against you.
We are completely encircled with this virus. They are scaling the walls, they are breaking in through the gate.
4 Brought low, you will speak from the ground; your speech will mumble out of the dust. Your voice will come ghostlike from the earth; out of the dust your speech will whisper.5 But your many enemies will become like fine dust, the ruthless hordes like blown chaff.
The boastful, arrogant speech has been silenced. No one cares about some NBA star, or some other media darling. We have been humbled. And our enemy, this virus, is like fine dust. They are ruthless, don’t care if you are elderly, or sick, or even a young child. And they come on us like blown chaff.
Suddenly, in an instant, 6 the Lord Almighty will come with thunder and earthquake and great noise, with windstorm and tempest and flames of a devouring fire.
This is the festival of Trumpets. We are announcing that the King is coming. When He arrives there will be a great earthquake.
7 Then the hordes of all the nations that fight against Ariel, that attack her and her fortress and besiege her, will be as it is with a dream, with a vision in the night— 8 as when a hungry person dreams of eating, but awakens hungry still; as when a thirsty person dreams of drinking, but awakens faint and thirsty still. So will it be with the hordes of all the nations that fight against Mount Zion.
Everyday we hear of some cure whether it is some drug, or some theory like disinfectant or UV light. Then we wake up and look at the numbers and they continue to increase. More are infected, more are dying than yesterday. They are going to have a massive testing that will allow them to reopen the schools in September, but then they will awake and realize the situation is worse today than yesterday.
9 Be stunned and amazed, blind yourselves and be sightless; be drunk, but not from wine, stagger, but not from beer. 10 The Lord has brought over you a deep sleep: He has sealed your eyes (the prophets); he has covered your heads (the seers). 11 For you this whole vision is nothing but words sealed in a scroll. And if you give the scroll to someone who can read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I can’t; it is sealed.”12 Or if you give the scroll to someone who cannot read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I don’t know how to read.”
This is where the rubber meets the road. This is the day we have been waiting and watching for. The festival of trumpets is when trumpets sound to wake you up! Sadly many will be exposed as not being prepared. For them the vision is nothing but words. It is sealed up. When they read the prophets they can’t read it because “it is sealed”.
13 The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught. 14 Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.”
Hypocrisy. That is why they are blind and can’t read. It is all lip service. Their worship is an act, not with the heart. What kind of wisdom is that? It is a wisdom of how to appear to come near and worship, but when the real pressure is on then you see that wisdom vanishes in an instant. They are clueless.
15 Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the Lord, who do their work in darkness and think, “Who sees us? Who will know?” 16 You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, “You did not make me”? Can the pot say to the potter, “You know nothing”?
Let’s look at an example of those who went to great depths to hide their plans from the Lord. The cigarette companies were manipulating the chemistry of cigarettes to make the nicotine a more powerful drug so that the cigarettes would be more addictive. They hired scientists to work on this but hid this because if cigarettes were a drug they would be regulated differently. They even lied to congress saying they did not act like a drug when it was well known within the company that they did. Then when a whistleblower was going to reveal on 60 Minutes that they lied to congress, that the cigarettes were a drug and were manipulated to more addictive despite also being deadly, they sued 60 Minutes. They said that if they revealed the truth of their lie it would be very costly to them and so they would sue CBS for their losses?! Talk about turning things upside down.
God is the one who rules in righteousness and justice, not them. Are they going to instruct Him about the law? So they lost, they lost big time. That should be a wake up call to anyone else who is also trying to hide their plans from the Lord.
17 In a very short time, will not Lebanon be turned into a fertile field and the fertile field seem like a forest? 18 In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see. 19 Once more the humble will rejoice in the Lord; the needy will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
When I first began to seek the Lord I opened up the Bible, I started to read, and I had no idea what I was reading. It was sealed. I was like a person who couldn’t read. My prayer was “Lord, I need a crowbar to open this”. Today my soul glorifies my Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my savior.
20 The ruthless will vanish, the mockers will disappear, and all who have an eye for evil will be cut down—21 those who with a word make someone out to be guilty, who ensnare the defender in court and with false testimony deprive the innocent of justice.
Since I started with the case about the cigarette companies I’ll finish with it as well. So, to prevent 60 Minutes from airing a devastating show that would fully expose the lies of the cigarette companies they attempted to smear the whistleblower. They put together a 500 page dossier of his sins including shoplifting, and failure to pay child support. They quoted a judge, police and his ex wife. Almost succeeded, but fortunately some people checked it out at their own expense. When they talked to the witnesses quoted in the dossier they heard a very different account and the Wall Street Journal, the number one supporter of big business, called it a smear campaign of the lowest level.
22 Therefore this is what the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, says to the descendants of Jacob: “No longer will Jacob be ashamed; no longer will their faces grow pale. 23 When they see among them their children, the work of my hands, they will keep my name holy; they will acknowledge the holiness of the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
Don’t you love this? Don’t you love being alive at this time when God will arise, when His enemies will be scattered, when His foes will flee? “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” (Rev 6:10). We have been patient, we have been praying, so Let God Arise!
24 Those who are wayward in spirit will gain understanding; those who complain will accept instruction.”
I learned this as a stock broker. When people complain and question it indicates they are listening, interested and considering what you are saying. God is not afraid of this, He welcomes it.